Not One Damn Dime Day - email I just received:

[sadinred]

Since our religious leaders will not speak out against the war in
Iraq, since our political leaders don't have the moral courage to
oppose it, Inauguration Day, Thursday, January 20th, 2005 is "Not
One Damn Dime Day" in America.

On "Not One Damn Dime Day" those who oppose what is happening in
our name in Iraq can speak up with a 24-hour national boycott of
all forms of consumer spending.

During "Not One Damn Dime Day" please don't spend money. Not one
damn dime for gasoline. Not one damn dime for necessities or for
impulse purchases. Nor toll/cab/bus or train ride money exchanges.
Not one damn dime for anything for 24 hours.
On "Not One Damn Dime Day," please boycott Walmart, KMart and
Target.
Please don't go to the mall or the local convenience store. Please
don't
buy any fast food (or any groceries at all for that matter).

For 24 hours, please do what you can to shut the retail economy
down.
The object is simple. Remind the people in power that the war in
Iraq is immoral and illegal; that they are responsible for starting
it and that it is their responsibility to stop it.

"Not One Damn Dime Day" is to remind them, too, that they work for
the people of the United States of America, not for the
international corporations and K Street lobbyists who represent the
corporations and funnel cash into American politics.
Not One Damn Dime Day" is about supporting the troops. The
politicians put the troops in harm's way. Now 1,200 brave young
Americans and (some estimate) 100,000 Iraqis have died. The
politicians owe our troops a plan -- a way to come home.

There's no rally to attend. No marching to do. No left or right
wing agenda to rant about. On "Not One Damn Dime Day" you take
action by doing nothing. You open your mouth by keeping your wallet
closed.

For 24 hours, nothing gets spent, not one damn dime, to remind our
religious leaders and our politicians of their moral responsibility
to end the war in Iraq and give America back to the people.

Please share this email with as many people as possible"

[Willy Wonka]

1. Uh, Target is innocent.

They donate more to the Dems than the Rethugs.

[yardwork]

3. Sadly, they don't. Target donates 70% to Repubs, 30% to Dems

It's Costco that donates almost 100% to Democrats. Costco is good!

[sadinred]

7. That's what I thought. Thanks.

[laheina]

21. I thought so.

I noticed this while looking through the corporate donations since the elections, but everyone else seemed to think differently. I was wondering if I had missed something.

I'm glad that I have a Costco card.

[silverlib]

10. Target and the holidy bell ringers

I don't know if it is only happening in Ausin, TX, but this year Target had told the Salvation Army bell ringers that they are not welcome on their property. They "offend our customers."

[goddess40]

15. Target is just being fair

besides the Salvation Army has shown their true anti-gay colors are not a worthy charity.

Target doesn't let anyone solicit on their turf, they just don't want play favorites. I am glad they didn't bow to public and media pressure and let the homophobes back in.
By the way, those bell ringers have always annoyed this customer long before I knew the organization was rotten.

Target is the bluest of the department store chains in my area. Sadly we have Sam's Club and no CostCo's.

[sadinred]

17. goddess40 do you have a link? I'd like to read more. I avoid

Walmart and all the obvious Bad Guys, I'd like to be able to shop at Target for stuff I need. I also will remove their name from the above once I know for sure.
I searched a bit but didn't find what you've written here.
Help?

[Left Is Write]

31. You are right. Target has always had a "no solicitation" policy in place.

In years past, they have made AN EXCEPTION for the Salvation Army. They chose not to make that exception this year. It's not discrimination against the Salvation Army, as many of the fundies are saying. Not one bit. In fact, Target Corporation gives away large sums of money to charitable causes every year, including the Salvation Army.

I will never boycott Target unless they do something incredibly stupid. I am a Minnesotan by birth, and I've been going to Target since I was in diapers. I remember when the Dayton family owned the company and Target was a "discount Daytons." I can't help it; I still associate the company with the Daytons even though they no longer own it. (Dayton family member Mark Dayton is the Democratic senator from Minnesota, just as an aside there.)

They are a hell of a lot bluer than WalMart will ever be, and they are my variety/discount retailer of choice.

[silverlib]

32. Thanks for the info...

I should have been more informed before I posted. I will pass the this info on to the people I know who are concerned about Target's decision. And I would also like a link to more information.

[sadinred]

2. Do they? Should I change it? Are you sure? n/t

[Wapsie B]

4. If you want to hurt retail,

do it now during the XMAS buying season.

[MissMillie]

5. I'd be happy to follow most of this

I can go a whole day without buying anything, but I drive a toll road to get to work and back, and there's no way I can take time off that week (classes start and my boss is going to need me).

[Bill McBlueState]

6. what will this accomplish?

If the American people were interested in protesting the Iraq invasion through mass action, Election Day was the perfect opportunity for them to do that. But they didn't. Half of them didn't even show up. I don't see how "not buying things" is going to work better than "having an election."

Sorry to be such a downer. :(

[sadinred]

11. I know. It's hard to believe in ANYTHING anymore, but

some one sent me this email and I am posting it here and sending it to all I know. If they in turn send it out, blah blah blah, there is chance.
I just figure it's easy to hit the send button and see what happens. Can't hurt. I also wrote a note on my calendar so that I remember to send reminders out the week before Jan 20.

What if it worked? How great would that be?! Of course those protesting will have to buy things in DC. They can't pack enough food etc to last the whole trip. If all not in DC refused to buy ANYTHING that one day I would be so ecouraged and so uplifted!

[laheina]

22. Voting with the dollar

is a good way to send a message to the corporate cronies that Bush fawns over so. None of them were up for election.

Plus, it seems to count more than an actual vote these days.

[Bill McBlueState]

26. that's a good point

send a message to the corporate cronies that Bush fawns over so

It's important that we do that. A friend of mine pointed out yesterday how there are no longer powerful movements of *real people* who dominate politics, like the unions of previous generations. It's because all the power lies with the heads of a few large corporations. Hardly anybody knows who they are, but they'll miss our money.

[laheina]

29. I've started being really careful where my $ goes.

I try and verify that they support rational values, if not a minimum of neutrality.

And you're friend is right; we need to recreate the grassroots intensity of the '60s. :hi:

[justinsb]

8. Outside the US

I'm still taking part in the overall boycott of all US products.

http://www.motherearth.org/USboycott/
http://www.stopusa.org/boycottnews.htm

I'm happy to say that I haven't bought a single US product since Nov. 3. There is a propsal going forward for a much more formal and organized boycott at a conference of international peace, justice and environmental groups in January. With the current US trade defeceit standing at 50 billion + a month, this could get the defeceit near a trillion dollars a year fairly quickly. I mean no offense, or harm to those on the left, but perhaps the only way to fix the US is to break it - after all, the most progressive period in US history came at the height of the great depression. At the very least we can, hopefully, create a situation where the US can't afford foreign wars.

[sadinred]

13. I agree with you and in fact I am amazed that all the "breakage"

already in the US hasn't been enough to wake us up and get us going. I can't believe we need more. I guess it's not yet hurting those in power.

[Bouncy Ball]

25. Good for you.

And I hope your boycott of American products works. I can't believe I am even having to say that, but yeah, the system as it has been perverted by the bushies needs to be broken completely before we can fix it.

[TexasBushwhacker]

28. While I understand your sentiment,

this really only works because you don't live in the US. While I haven't been on the rampant consumerism bus for quite some time now, I try my best to buy products that ARE made in the US, or are produced in other countries but the artisans are paid a fair price (rather than sweatshop wages). For example, there's actually a chain of stores called Ten Thousand Villages:

http://www.tenthousandvillages.com/

I also make a point to buy things that are made of recycled plastic, etc., natural fibers, etc.

[Deja Q]

9. Good luck. Should we stock up on gas and food now? Better yet,

:crazy:

And better yet, GO to the stores. Make it LOOK as if you're going to buy. Load up the cart. Get near the front. Maybe put a note on top of the cart saying why you're not buying. Walk away from the cart. Then leave.

It helps to have children so the cameras think that Junior was having a tantrum. :D

[Feathered Fish]

12. Yeah, but that just creates

more work for the overworked/underpaid.

[Deja Q]

30. How about not spending a damn dime? Guess how many people end up NO PAID?

We're all pawns in somebody's game.

Forgive me, but it is utter bullshit to expect that we're all going to get reform with nobody getting hurt. That's Mary Poppins fantasyland thinking. Get real.

Sooner or later, we're all going to be in the same boat.

And assuming I ever got a retail job, I'd be laughing when re-stocking all the goods.

Think of it this way: It's job security for them. Something the rest of us don't have.

And we're ALL overworked. At least those of us with jobs. And that leads to health problems, amongst other things...

I could go on, but It's utterly ridiculous. Apparently if nobody spends a damn dime, people will notice (in the form of people losing their underpaid jobs, in case you didn't clock that fact by now.) Yet any form of political action that actually means something more obvious and "Oh no! Somebody's going to get hurt! Waaah!" Either way, they are getting hurt. We are getting hurt in our own ways.

Many people can't even spend a damn dime because they have no damn job. What should they do then? Certainly not what I had said. Why that means more work for somebody.


BTW: I noticed (as of the current timestamp) that your name seems to be lacking in other areas of this thread. How come I get the attention and even the main post didn't, considering the greater ramifications it obviously suggests? Especially when more people will lose their jobs when the managers see that nobody's buying?

[sniffa]

14. doing it

i'LL get by w/out my coffee somehow

[sadinred]

16. I know what you mean. Little things like coffee count too. Pass it

on.

[peacebird]

18. i suggest it be for the entire WEEK of the coronation

a full week of buying NOTHING would make corporations notice.
if even half the kerry voters signed up for this, it would be noticed.

hence - for my family - we will buy NOTHING the week of the coronation

nada. zilch. zero.

i'll be making lunch for hubby and myself on work days. not one penny will we spend that week.

[sadinred]

19. I like it. Will you help get the word out? I will try to post a reminder

here at DU before that week as well.:toast:

[peacebird]

20. glad to!

for starters i'll go post up a message at democrats.com and smirking chimp.

:toast:

[sadinred]

23. Thanks. It's not my deal but I want to help make it happen. n/t

[Bouncy Ball]

24. That's for today?

Good deal. I haven't spent anything today and won't.

I'm not spending any money the week of the inauguration and we hardly spent any money at all on Christmas shopping (and most of what we did, probably 95%, was at Costco!).

Screw em. I vote with my dollars, since my actual vote doesn't seem to count.

[sadinred]

27. Hi Bouncyball. I was just over at your post! No, it's for Jan 20

but there are many boycotters who are doing their share of Not Buying each and everyday.

[UrbScotty]

33. Great Idea!

I'm in!